[email removed] writes:
>
> In general, airframe hulls may enter any planetary atmosphere
> to land on the surface or skim fuel; streamlined hulls may skim
> gas giants but may not land on planetary surfaces with
> atmospheres of greater than Thin; and unstreamlined hulls may do
> neither. These capabilities may be modified if the vessel is
> equipped with some form of weight compensating drive, such as
> contra-grav, see the Sub-Light Maneuver Drive chapter.
Could you substitute "lifting device" for "weight compensating device"?
A suitable size rocket should also allow just about anything to land
anywhere, regardless of atmosphere - all it needs to be able to do is
overcome the local gravity. I recall seeing on the news a little while
ago how some people (NASA? JPL? Who was it?) had built a little craft
which used just rockets to go up, move a little way sideways, and come
down again. Not far in any of those directions, but it was a start,
and by TL 9 I should expect that anything which can overcome the
gravity of an airless planet can equally well overcome the gravity of
a similar sized planet with an atmosphere.
- --
"Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott
Adrian Hurt | JANET: [email removed]
UUCP: ..!uknet!cee.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: [email removed]